Authentication is an important aspect of secure communication over the Internet. In many situations it is important that an Internet user can trust that communications originate from a known and trusted sender, and that the communications between the sender and user are not altered during transit. For example, an Internet user making a purchase over the Internet, or using an Internet banking platform, needs to know that they are communicating with a legitimate entity over a secure connection.
Some known authentication techniques use digital certificates. Digital certificates seek to authenticate an entity, and a communication from the entity, by providing information identifying the entity along with a digital signature of a trusted third party. Trusted third parties are typically certification authorities such as Comodo® and Symantec®, and the validity of the digital signature can be verified using cryptography techniques. If the user trusts the third party and the digital signature can be verified, the user can trust the communication from the entity.
While such authentication techniques are important, in some situations they have limitations. For example, where an Internet user performs a search using a well-known search engine such as Google®, the connection to the search engine may be trusted and secure but the search results may contain hyperlinks to websites or content that are not trusted or not secure. As another example, where an Internet user is making a purchase through an Internet marketplace such as Amazon® or eBay®, it is possible that while the connection with the Internet marketplace is secure and trusted by the Internet user, the entity trading through the Internet marketplace may not be a trusted entity. In these situations, an entity associated with network resources that are not authenticated may use the trust Internet users place in entities that are authenticated to avoid scrutiny. Ultimately, the open nature of the Internet makes this a difficult technical problem to overcome.